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Steve Myers
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Mayor Don Williamson likely will veto the budget the City Council approved this week over what officials said Thursday would lead to extreme cuts, including layoffs to assistant city attorneys who prosecute misdemeanor cases and sign warrants for police.
A council member called such scenarios scare tactics.
If vetoed, the council would get seven days to override the mayor's action and would need six of nine votes.
The budget battle is the latest tussle between Williamson and the council in confrontations that have included lawsuits and name-calling.
Joe Conroy, the city's governmental operations director, said during a news conference that Williamson is hoping for a compromise, but might file a lawsuit as a last resort, especially over a proposal to hire Genesee County to administer millions of dollars of federal block grants. The outsourcing move also is opposed by city unions.
If the council budget goes into effect, more than 20 employees would be laid off effective July 1, officials said. In addition to effectively shutting down the legal department, the layoffs would close the city's grants division and mayor's office.
"The mayor will be hamstrung," said Conroy, whose position also would be eliminated. "We get hundreds of calls here a day, and we're not going to have anybody to answer the phones. We need a city that works and we would hope that council would turn around somewhere in this process and try to negotiate."
But council members say they've left money for services, including city attorneys at Flint District Court. They say the mayor is just unwilling to live within the new budget, which was adopted by line-item and gives the council much more oversight than in the past on spending by requiring more council approvals.
"The mayor needs to realize that he is not Caesar," said Sixth Ward Councilman Mark A. Horrigan. "I will not be bullied into doing things that aren't right. He needs to realize the council has power and that he needs to work with council."
Conroy, however, said the line-item budget is a power grab that would force the administration to constantly seek council approval..
"We would be constantly in their offices virtually every week trying to make adjustments," he said. "We don't need to spend our time doing that. We need to get out and help our people lift them up, lead them in a positive way."
But Horrigan said city ordinance allows the mayor to make emergency purchases.
"That's how government works and the mayor needs to deal with it - it's called checks and balances," he said. "What the mayor is refusing to do is to be accountable with other people's money."
Conroy says the mayor has done a good job with finances and residents know it. He encouraged them to lobby their council members.
"(Council members) were out of line in doing what they did," he said. "The mayor proposed a budget that will balance. He's operating in this budget which will balance and so, if anybody thinks he's overspending, it's just not true and if anybody knows this mayor, they know it's not true."
Full story:
http://www.mlive.com/news/fljournal/index.ssf?/base/news-29/111841714132900.xml |
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Fri Jun 10, 2005 11:57 am |
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